This week’s news roundup looks at an unexpected type of leak at British Gas, the need to use unique and strong passwords for every website you visit, the scams commonly found on social networks and a quick look at just how much data WhatsApp’s new calling feature records about your calls.
Data breaches come in many different forms and sizes. Not all are a result of malicous hackers, but each can be just as devastating when victims’ personal information falls into the wrong hands.
With the continual evolution of the internet and the devices that connect to it, there was a certain inevitability about the amalgamation of the two. Named the ‘Internet of Things,’ that coming together has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. But have manufacturers fully grasped the concepts of security and privacy surrounding this proliferation of web-enabled devices?
If nothing else, this week’s news has taught us the importance of having an incident response plan in place and reminded us that we are individually all targets for criminals. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as demonstrated by an enterprising 11-year-old who has made secure passwords her business.
Has someone taken explicit video footage or still images of you and posted it on the internet? If they have, I really feel for you; it’s a horrific, damaging crime. But there is some help out there in the form of the law and specialised support groups run by people just like you.
When I was growing up The Smurfs were cute cartoon characters and petrol station collectibles. In 2015 they’re something far more sinister – a collection of tools used by the security services to compromise smartphones and the people who own them.
Strength in numbers. Sounds like a sound plan, eh? In many respects, running multiple security programs together can indeed bolster your overall defences quite significantly. But there are exceptions to every rule. In this article I explain why running two antivirus programs simultaneously will leave them at loggerheads with each other.
Found a random antivirus program on the net and downloaded it for free? Bought antivirus software in response to a pop-up on your screen that warned you were infected with malware? Feeling safe now? Perhaps you shouldn’t. Fake antivirus. Be afraid. Very afraid.
If you get what you pay for in life, how much antivirus protection do you get with a free program? Assuming you’ve downloaded it from a reputable vendor, quite a bit actually. Whether it’s enough will take careful thought and will depend on how you use your computer.
You can liken a firewall to a barrier around your computer – it will stop intruders entering your private space and prevent your darkest secrets from being carried off in the night. Everyone should have one – recent versions of Windows ships with its own firewall – but it’s useful to know what it does and how to ensure it’s switched on!